In several countries, the army is officially called the Land Army to differentiate it from an air force called the Air Army, notably France. In such countries, the word "army" on its own retains its connotation of a land force in common usage, the current largest army in the world, by number of active troops, is the People's Liberation Army Ground Force of China with 1,600,000 active troops and 510,000 reserve personnel followed by the Indian Army with 1,129,000 active troops and 960,000 reserve personnel.

By convention, irregular military is understood in contrast to regular armies which grew slowly from personal bodyguards or elite militia. Regular in this case refers to standardized doctrines, uniforms, organizations, etc. Regular military can also refer to full-time status (standing army), versus reserve or part-time personnel. Other distinctions may separate statutory forces (established under laws such as the National Defence Act), from de facto "non-statutory" forces such as some guerrilla and revolutionary armies. Armies may also be expeditionary (designed for overseas or international deployment) or fencible (designed for – or restricted to – homeland defence)

The Spartan Army was one of the earliest known professional armies. Boys were sent to a barracks at the age of seven or eight to train for becoming a soldier, at the age of thirty they were released from the barracks and allowed to marry and have a family. After that, men devoted their lives to war until their retirement at the age of 60. Unlike other civilizations, whose armies had to disband during the planting and harvest seasons, the Spartan serfs or helots, did the manual labor.

This allowed the Spartans to field a full-time army with a campaign season that lasted all year.[citation needed] The Spartan Army was largely composed of hoplites, equipped with arms and armor nearly identical to each other, each hoplite bore the Spartan emblem and a scarlet uniform. The main pieces of this armor were a round shield, a spear and a helmet.

The Roman Army had its origins in the citizen army of the Republic, which was staffed by citizens serving mandatory duty for Rome. Reforms turned the army into a professional organization which was still largely filled by citizens, but these citizens served continuously for 25 years before being discharged.[citation needed]

The Romans were also noted for making use of auxiliary troops, non-Romans who served with the legions and filled roles that the traditional Roman military could not fill effectively, such as light skirmish troops and heavy cavalry. After their service in the army they were made citizens of Rome and then their children were citizens also, they were also given land and money to settle in Rome. In the Late Roman Empire, these auxiliary troops, along with foreign mercenaries, became the core of the Roman Army; moreover, by the time of the Late Roman Empire tribes such as the Visigoths were paid to serve as mercenaries.

Armies of the Middle Ages consisted of noble knights, rendering service to their suzerain, and hired footsoldiers

In the earliest Middle Ages it was the obligation of every aristocrat to respond to the call to battle with his own equipment, archers, and infantry, this decentralized system was necessary due to the social order of the time, but could lead to motley forces with variable training, equipment and abilities. The more resources the noble had access to, the better his troops would be.

The knights were drawn to battle by feudal and social obligation, and also by the prospect of profit and advancement, those who performed well were likely to increase their landholdings and advance in the social hierarchy.[citation needed] The prospect of significant income from pillage, and ransoming prisoners was also important, for the mounted knight war could be a relatively low risk affair.

As central governments grew in power, a return to the citizen armies of the classical period also began, as central levies of the peasantry began to be the central recruiting tool. England was one of the most centralized states in the Middle Ages, and the armies that fought in the Hundred Years' War were, predominantly, composed of paid professionals.

In theory, every Englishman had an obligation to serve for forty days. Forty days was not long enough for a campaign, especially one on the continent.[8]

Thus the scutage was introduced, whereby most Englishmen paid to escape their service and this money was used to create a permanent army. However, almost all high medieval armies in Europe were composed of a great deal of paid core troops, and there was a large mercenary market in Europe from at least the early 12th century.

As the Middle Ages progressed in Italy, Italian cities began to rely mostly on mercenaries to do their fighting rather than the militias that had dominated the early and high medieval period in this region, these would be groups of career soldiers who would be paid a set rate. Mercenaries tended to be effective soldiers, especially in combination with standing forces, but in Italy they came to dominate the armies of the city states, this made them considerably less reliable than a standing army. Mercenary-on-mercenary warfare in Italy also led to relatively bloodless campaigns which relied as much on maneuver as on battles.

In 1439 the French legislature, known as the Estates General (French: états généraux), passed laws that restricted military recruitment and training to the king alone. There was a new tax to be raised known as the taille that was to provide funding for a new Royal army, the mercenary companies were given a choice of either joining the Royal army as compagnies d'ordonnance on a permanent basis, or being hunted down and destroyed if they refused. France gained a total standing army of around 6,000 men, which was sent out to gradually eliminate the remaining mercenaries who insisted on operating on their own, the new standing army had a more disciplined and professional approach to warfare than its predecessors. The reforms of the 1440s, eventually led to the French victory at Castillon in 1453, and the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War. By 1450 the companies were divided into the field army, known as the grande ordonnance and the garrison force known as the petite ordonnance .[9]

First nation states lacked the funds needed to maintain standing forces, so they tended to hire mercenaries to serve in their armies during wartime, such mercenaries typically formed at the ends of periods of conflict, when men-at-arms were no longer needed by their respective governments.

The veteran soldiers thus looked for other forms of employment, often becoming mercenaries. Free Companies would often specialize in forms of combat that required longer periods of training that was not available in the form of a mobilized militia.

As late as the 1650s, most troops were mercenaries. However, after the 17th century, most states invested in better disciplined and more politically reliable permanent troops, for a time mercenaries became important as trainers and administrators, but soon these tasks were also taken by the state. The massive size of these armies required a large supporting force of administrators.

The newly centralized states were forced to set up vast organized bureaucracies to manage these armies, which some historians argue is the basis of the modern bureaucratic state, the combination of increased taxes and increased centralisation of government functions caused a series of revolts across Europe such as the Fronde in France and the English Civil War.

In many countries, the resolution of this conflict was the rise of absolute monarchy. Only in England and the Netherlands did representative government evolve as an alternative, from the late 17th century, states learned how to finance wars through long term low interest loans from national banking institutions. The first state to master this process was the Dutch Republic, this transformation in the armies of Europe had great social impact. The defense of the state now rested on the commoners, not on the aristocrats.

However, aristocrats continued to monopolise the officer corps of almost all early modern armies, including their high command. Moreover, popular revolts almost always failed unless they had the support and patronage of the noble or gentry classes, the new armies, because of their vast expense, were also dependent on taxation and the commercial classes who also began to demand a greater role in society. The great commercial powers of the Dutch and English matched much larger states in military might.

As any man could be quickly trained in the use of a musket, it became far easier to form massive armies, the inaccuracy of the weapons necessitated large groups of massed soldiers. This led to a rapid swelling of the size of armies, for the first time huge masses of the population could enter combat, rather than just the highly skilled professionals.

It has been argued that the drawing of men from across the nation into an organized corps helped breed national unity and patriotism, and during this period the modern notion of the nation state was born. However, this would only become apparent after the French Revolutionary Wars, at this time, the levée en masse and conscription would become the defining paradigm of modern warfare.

Before then, however, most national armies were in fact composed of many nationalities; in Spain armies were recruited from all the Spanish European territories including Spain, Italy, Wallonia (Walloon Guards) and Germany. The French recruited some soldiers from Germany, Switzerland as well as from Piedmont. Britain recruited Hessian and Hanovrian troops until the late 18th century. Irish Catholics made careers for themselves in the armies of many Catholic European states.

Troops for foreign expeditions were raised upon an ad hoc basis. Noblemen and professional regular soldiers were commissioned by the monarch to supply troops, raising their quotas by indenture from a variety of sources. On January 26, 1661 Charles II issued the Royal Warrant that created the genesis of what would become the British Army, although the Scottish and English Armies would remain two separate organizations until the unification of England and Scotland in 1707, the small force was represented by only a few regiments.

Until 1733 the common soldiers of Prussian Army consisted largely of peasantry recruited or impressed from Brandenburg-Prussia, leading many to flee to neighboring countries.[11] To halt this trend, Frederick William I divided Prussia into regimental cantons, every youth was required to serve as a soldier in these recruitment districts for three months each year; this met agrarian needs and added extra troops to bolster the regular ranks.[12]

The battle of the Nations (1813), marked the transition between aristocratic armies and national armies.[13]Masses replace hired professionals and national hatred overrides dynastic conflicts. An early example of total wars.

Russian tsars before Peter I of Russia maintained professional hereditary musketeer corps (streltsy in Russian) that were highly unreliable and undisciplined. In times of war the armed forces were augmented by peasants. Peter I introduced a modern regular army built on German model, but with a new aspect: officers not necessarily from nobility, as talented commoners were given promotions that eventually included a noble title at the attainment of an officer's rank. Conscription of peasants and townspeople was based on quota system, per settlement. Initially it was based on the number of households, later it was based on the population numbers,[14] the term of service in the 18th century was for life. In 1793 it was reduced to 25 years; in 1834 it was reduced to 20 years plus 5 years in reserve and in 1855 to 12 years plus 3 years of reserve.[14][chronology citation needed]

The first Ottomanstanding army were Janissaries, they replaced forces that mostly comprised tribal warriors (ghazis) whose loyalty and morale could not always be trusted. The first Janissary units were formed from prisoners of war and slaves, probably as a result of the sultan taking his traditional one-fifth share of his army's booty in kind rather than cash.

From the 1380s onwards, their ranks were filled under the devşirme system, where feudal dues were paid by service to the sultan, the "recruits" were mostly Christian youths, reminiscent of mamluks.

Conscription, particularly when the conscripts are being sent to foreign wars that do not directly affect the security of the nation, has historically been highly politically contentious in democracies.

Canada also had a political dispute over conscription during World War II. Similarly, mass protests against conscription to fight the Vietnam War occurred in several countries in the late 1960s.

In developed nations, the increasing emphasis on technological firepower and better-trained fighting forces, the sheer unlikelihood of a conventional military assault on most developed nations, as well as memories of the contentiousness of the Vietnam War experience, make mass conscription unlikely in the foreseeable future.

Division: Each division is commanded by a Major General, and usually holds three brigades including infantry, artillery, engineers and communications units in addition to logistics (supply and service) support to sustain independent action. Except for the divisions operating in the mountains, divisions have at least one armored unit, some have even more depending upon their functionality, the basic building block of all ground force combat formations is the infantry division.

Brigade: A brigade is under the command of a Brigadier or Brigadier General and sometimes is commanded by a Colonel. It typically comprises three or more battalions of different units depending on its functionality. An independent brigade would be one that primarily consists of an artillery unit, an infantry unit, an armour unit and logistics to support its actions, such a brigade is not part of any division and is under direct command of a corps.

Battalion: Each battalion is commanded by a Colonel or sometimes by Lieutenant Colonel who commands roughly 500 to 750 soldiers. This number varies depending on the functionality of the regiment. A battalion comprises 3–5 companies (3 rifle companies, a fire support company and headquarters company) or its functional equivalent such as batteries (artillery) or squadrons (armour and cavalry), each under the command of a Major, the company can be divided into platoons, each of which can again be divided into sections or squads. (Terminology is nationality and even unit specific.)[15]

A field army is composed of a headquarters, army troops, a variable number of corps, typically between three and four, and a variable number of divisions, also between three and four. A battle is influenced at the Field Army level by transferring divisions and reinforcements from one corps to another to increase the pressure on the enemy at a critical point. Field armies are controlled by a General or Lieutenant General.

Standard map symbol for a numbered Army, the 'X's are not substituting the army's number

A particular army can be named or numbered to distinguish it from military land forces in general, for example, the First United States Army and the Army of Northern Virginia. In the British Army it is normal to spell out the ordinal number of an army (e.g. First Army), whereas lower formations use figures (e.g. 1st Division).

Armies (as well as army groups and theaters) are large formations which vary significantly between armed forces in size, composition, and scope of responsibility.

1.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole

2.
Old French
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Old French was the Gallo-Romance dialect continuum spoken from the 9th century to the 14th century. In the 14th century, these came to be collectively known as the langues doïl. The mid-14th century is taken as the period to Middle French. The areal of Old French in contemporary terms corresponded to the parts of the Kingdom of France, Upper Burgundy. As part of the emerging Gallo-Romance dialect continuum, the langues doïl were contrasted with the langue doc, in these examples, we notice a clear consequence of bilingualism, that sometimes even changed the first syllable of the Latin words. Pope estimated that perhaps still 15% of the vocabulary of modern French derives from Germanic sources, at the third Council of Tours in 813, priests were ordered to preach in the vernacular language, since the common people could no longer understand formal Latin. The second-oldest document in Old French is the Eulalia sequence, which is important for reconstruction of Old French pronunciation due to its consistent spelling. The Capetians langue doïl, the forerunner of modern standard French, did not begin to become the common speech of all of France, however, until after the French Revolution. In the Late Middle Ages, the Old French dialects diverged into a number of distinct langues doïl, during the Early Modern period, French now becomes established as the official language of the Kingdom of France throughout the realm, also including the langue doc-speaking territories in the south. Old French gives way to Middle French in the mid-14th century, the earliest extant French literary texts date from the ninth century, but very few texts before the 11th century have survived. The first literary works written in Old French were saints lives, the Canticle of Saint Eulalie, written in the second half of the 9th century, is generally accepted as the first such text. The first of these is the area of the chansons de geste. More than one hundred chansons de geste have survived in three hundred manuscripts. The oldest and most celebrated of the chansons de geste is The Song of Roland, a fourth grouping, not listed by Bertrand, is the Crusade cycle, dealing with the First Crusade and its immediate aftermath. Jean Bodels other two categories—the Matter of Rome and the Matter of Britain—concern the French romance or roman, around a hundred verse romances survive from the period 1150–1220. From around 1200 on, the tendency was increasingly to write the romances in prose, the most important romance of the 13th century is the Romance of the Rose which breaks considerably from the conventions of the chivalric adventure story. The Occitan or Provençal poets were called troubadours, from the word trobar to find, lyric poets in Old French are called trouvères. By the late 13th century, the tradition in France had begun to develop in ways that differed significantly from the troubadour poets

3.
Military branch
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Military branch is according to common standard the subdivision of the national armed forces of a sovereign nation or state. In classical terminology, the three military branches are the Army, Air Force, and Navy. Countries which do not have access to any of the seas or any oceans generally do not have a national navy. In some countries there might be other military branches, while it has three environmental commands - namely Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Air Force - it remains a single military service. The military branches came into being in line with military technical progress and have been developed permanently, with that background, the air force was established early in the 20th century as one of the latest armed service. The army is traditionally the oldest – and in countries the biggest armed service. Branch of service refers, according to NATO standards, to a branch, employment of combined forces or parts of a service, below the level of service, military serviced or armed service

4.
State (polity)
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A state is a type of polity that is an organized political community living under a single system of government. States may or may not be sovereign, for instance, federated states are members of a federal union, and may have only partial sovereignty, but are, nonetheless, states. Some states are subject to external sovereignty or hegemony, in which ultimate sovereignty lies in another state, States that are sovereign are known as sovereign states. The term state can also refer to the branches of government within a state, often as a manner of contrasting them with churches. Speakers of American English often use the state and government as synonyms. Many human societies have been governed by states for millennia, over time a variety of different forms developed, employing a variety of justifications of legitimacy for their existence. In the 21st century, the modern nation-state is the predominant form of state to which people are subjected, there is no academic consensus on the most appropriate definition of the state. The term state refers to a set of different, but interrelated and often overlapping, general categories of state institutions include administrative bureaucracies, legal systems, and military or religious organizations. Another commonly accepted definition of the state is the one given at the Montevideo Convention on Rights, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a state is a. an organized political community under one government, a commonwealth, a nation. B. such a community forming part of a federal republic, confounding the definition problem is that state and government are often used as synonyms in common conversation and even some academic discourse. According to this schema, the states are nonphysical persons of international law. The relationship between a government and its state is one of representation and authorized agency, States may be classified as sovereign if they are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Other states are subject to external sovereignty or hegemony where ultimate sovereignty lies in another state, many states are federated states which participate in a federal union. A federated state is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federation, such states differ from sovereign states in that they have transferred a portion of their sovereign powers to a federal government. One can commonly and sometimes readily classify states according to their apparent make-up or focus, the concept of the nation-state, theoretically or ideally co-terminous with a nation, became very popular by the 20th century in Europe, but occurred rarely elsewhere or at other times. Imperial states have sometimes promoted notions of racial superiority, the concept of temple states centred on religious shrines occurs in some discussions of the ancient world. To some extent, urban secession, the creation of a new city-state, a state can be distinguished from a government. The government is the group of people, the administrative bureaucracy that controls the state apparatus at a given time

5.
Army aviation
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An army aviation unit is an aviation-related unit of a nations army, often described as an air corps. These units are separate from a nations dedicated air force. Prior to the establishment of national air forces, many armies had military aviation units. As the separation between an army and air force led to a divergence of priorities, many armies re-established their own organic aviation branches to best serve their own needs. At this point the purpose of aircraft was still to act as an adjunct to traditional armies, today a compromise fairly typical the world over is if it has wings it belongs to the air force allowing the army to operate helicopters and light fixed wing aircraft. The tasks of each armys aviation units are defined slightly different, transporting the British Army in war and peace, London, Cooper, ISBN 0-85052-724-4 Warner, Guy, Boyd, Alex, Army Aviation in Ulster, Newtownards, Co. Down, Colourpoint Books, ISBN 1-904242-27-8 Young, Ralph B. Army aviation in Vietnam, an illustrated history of unit insignia, aircraft camouflage and markings, Ramsey, Huey Co. ISBN 0-9671980-1-1 Media related to Army aviation at Wikimedia Commons

6.
Military
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The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their body and to defend that body. Armed force is the use of armed forces to achieve political objectives, the study of the use of armed forces is called military science. Broadly speaking, this involves considering offense and defense at three levels, strategy, operational art, and tactics, all three levels study the application of the use of force in order to achieve a desired objective. In most countries the basis of the forces is the military. However, armed forces can include other paramilitary structures, the obvious benefit to a country in maintaining armed forces is in providing protection from foreign threats and from internal conflict. In recent decades armed forces personnel have also used as emergency civil support roles in post-disaster situations. On the other hand, they may harm a society by engaging in counter-productive warfare. Expenditure on science and technology to develop weapons and systems sometimes produces side benefits, although some claim that greater benefits could come from targeting the money directly

7.
People's Liberation Army
–
The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army is the armed forces of the Communist Party of China and the Peoples Republic of China. The PLA consists of five service branches, the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force. The PLA is the worlds largest military force, with a strength of approximately 2,183,000 personnel. In September 2015, Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the PLAs insignia consists of a roundel with a red star bearing the Chinese characters for Eight One, referring to the Nanchang Uprising which began on August 1,1927. The PLA is under the command of the Central Military Commission of the CPC and its commander in chief is the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. The Ministry of National Defense, which operates under the State Council and this conception of the role of the PLA requires the promotion of specialised officers who can understand modern weaponry and handle combined arms operations. Units around the country are assigned to one of five Theater commands by geographical location, Military service is compulsory by law, however, compulsory military service in China has never been enforced due to large numbers of military and paramilitary personnel. In times of emergency, the Peoples Armed Police and the Peoples Liberation Army militia act as a reserve. They were then known as the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army, between 1934 and 1935, the Red Army survived several campaigns led against it by Chiang Kai-Shek and engaged in the Long March. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the Communist Party merged the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army and they eventually won the Chinese Civil War, establishing the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. The PLA then saw a reorganisation with the establishment of the Air Force leadership structure in November 1949 followed by the Navy leadership the following April. In 1950, the structures of the artillery, armoured troops, air defence troops, public security forces. The chemical warfare defence forces, the forces, the communications forces. During the 1950s, the PLA with Soviet assistance began to transform itself from a peasant army into a modern one, part of this process was the reorganisation that created thirteen military regions in 1955. The PLA also contained many former National Revolutionary Army units and generals who had defected to the PLA, Ma Hongbin and his son Ma Dunjing were the only two Muslim generals who led a Muslim unit, the 81st corps, to ever serve in the PLA. Han Youwen, a Salar Muslim general, also defected to the PLA, in November 1950, some units of the PLA under the name of the Peoples Volunteer Army intervened in the Korean War as United Nations forces under General Douglas MacArthur approached the Yalu River. Under the weight of offensive, Chinese forces drove MacArthurs forces out of North Korea and captured Seoul. The war also served as a catalyst for the modernisation of the PLAAF

8.
Field army
–
A field army is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps and may be subordinate to an army group. Likewise, air armies are equivalent formation within some air forces, a field army is composed of 100,000 to 150,000 troops. Particular field armies are named or numbered to distinguish them from army in the sense of an entire national land military force. In English, the style for naming field armies is word numbers, such as First Army, whereas corps are usually distinguished by Roman numerals. A field army may be given a name in addition to or as an alternative to a numerical name, such as the British Army of the Rhine. The term is derived from the fact that they were commanded by Roman emperors, while the Roman comitatensis is sometimes translated as field army, it may also be translated as the more generic field force or mobile force. In some armed forces, an army is or has been equivalent to a corps-level unit, prior to 1945, this was the case with a gun within the Imperial Japanese Army, for which the formation equivalent in size to a field army was an area army. In the Soviet Red Army and the Soviet Air Forces, an army was subordinate in wartime to a front and it contained at least three to five divisions along with artillery, air defense, reconnaissance and other supporting units. In peacetime, a Soviet army was subordinate to a military district. Modern field armies are large formations which vary significantly between armed forces in size, composition, and scope of responsibility. For instance, within NATO a field army is composed of a headquarters, a battle is influenced at the field army level by transferring divisions and reinforcements from one corps to another to increase the pressure on the enemy at a critical point. NATO armies are controlled by a general or lieutenant general, Military unit Military history List of numbered armies

9.
Military reserve force
–
A military reserve force is a military organisation composed of citizens of a country who combine a military role or career with a civilian career. They are not normally kept under arms and their role is to be available to fight when a nation mobilises for total war or to defend against invasion. Reserve forces are not considered part of a permanent standing body of armed forces. The existence of reserve forces allows a nation to reduce its military expenditures while maintaining a force prepared for war. It is analogous to the model of military recruitment before the era of standing armies. In some countries, such as Canada, United States, Spain and they may do so as individuals or as members of standing reserve regiments, for example the Army Reserve of the United Kingdom. In Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Colombia, and Israel, during the eighteenth century some nations military systems included practices and institutions that functioned effectively as a reserve force, even if they were not specifically designated as such. The Militia Act of 1757 effectively gave Britain at least somewhat of a structure for a reserve force. Historically reservists first played a significant role in Europe after the Prussian defeat in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, on 9 July 1807 in the Treaties of Tilsit, Napoleon I forced Prussia to drastically reduce its military strength, in addition to ceding large amounts of territory. The Prussian army could no longer be stronger than 42,000 men, with this the reduction of the armys strength did not have the desired effect, and in the following wars Prussia was able to draw up a large number of trained soldiers. The system was retained by the Imperial German Army into the First World War, in some countries, for example the United States, reservists are often former military members who reached the end of their enlistment or resigned their commission. Indeed, service in the reserves for a number of years after leaving active service is required in the enlistment contracts, Reservists can also be civilians who undertake basic and specialised training in parallel with regular forces while retaining their civilian roles. They can be deployed independently or their personnel may make up shortages in regular units, United Kingdoms Army Reserve is one example of such a reserve. With universal conscription, most of the population may be reservists. In Finland, all men belong to the reserve until 60 years of age, ten percent of conscripts are trained as reserve officers. Reservists and reserve officers are called up for refresher exercises. Reserves are used and employed in many ways, in wartime they may be used to provide replacements for combat losses to in-action units and formations, thus allowing these to remain battle-worthy longer. They can also be used to new units and formations to augment the regular army

10.
War
–
War is a state of armed conflict between societies. It is generally characterized by extreme aggression, destruction, and mortality, an absence of war is usually called peace. Warfare refers to the activities and characteristics of types of war. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to legitimate military targets. While some scholars see war as a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature, as concerns a belligerents losses in proportion to its prewar population, the most destructive war in modern history may have been the Paraguayan War. In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths, down from 72,000 deaths in 1990, in 2003, Richard Smalley identified war as the sixth biggest problem facing humanity for the next fifty years. Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in the conflict, the word is related to the Old Saxon werran, Old High German werran, and the German verwirren, meaning “to confuse”, “to perplex”, and “to bring into confusion”. In German, the equivalent is Krieg, the Spanish, Portuguese, the scholarly study of war is sometimes called polemology, from the Greek polemos, meaning war, and -logy, meaning the study of. Studies of war by military theorists throughout military history have sought to identify the philosophy of war, asymmetric warfare is a conflict between two populations of drastically different levels of military capability or size. Biological warfare, or germ warfare, is the use of weaponized biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, chemical warfare involves the use of weaponized chemicals in combat. Poison gas as a weapon was principally used during World War I. Civil war is a war between forces belonging to the nation or political entity. Conventional warfare is declared war between states in which nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons are not used or see limited deployment, cyberwarfare involves the actions by a nation-state or international organization to attack and attempt to damage another nations information systems. Information warfare is the application of force on a large scale against information assets and systems, against the computers. Nuclear warfare is warfare in which weapons are the primary, or a major. War of aggression is a war for conquest or gain rather than self-defense, the earliest recorded evidence of war belongs to the Mesolithic cemetery Site 117, which has been determined to be approximately 14,000 years old. About forty-five percent of the skeletons there displayed signs of violent death, since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe. The advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare

11.
Natural disaster
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An adverse event will not rise to the level of a disaster if it occurs in an area without vulnerable population. In a vulnerable area, however, such as Nepal during the 2015 earthquake, a landslide is described as an outward and downward slope movement of an abundance of slope-forming materials including rock, soil, artificial, or even a combination of these things. During World War I, an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 soldiers died as a result of avalanches during the campaign in the Alps at the Austrian-Italian front. Many of the avalanches were caused by artillery fire, an earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earths crust that creates seismic waves. At the Earths surface earthquakes manifest themselves by vibration, shaking, earthquakes are caused by slippage within geological faults. The underground point of origin of the earthquake is called the seismic focus, the point directly above the focus on the surface is called the epicenter. Earthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife and it is usually the secondary events that they trigger such as building collapse, fires, tsunamis and volcanoes. Many of these could possibly be avoided by better construction, safety systems, when natural erosion or human mining makes the ground too weak to support the structures built on it, the ground can collapse and produce a sinkhole. Volcanoes can cause destruction and consequent disaster in several ways. The effects include the eruption itself that may cause harm following the explosion of the volcano or falling rocks. Second, lava may be produced during the eruption of a volcano, third, volcanic ash generally meaning the cooled ash – may form a cloud, and settle thickly in nearby locations. When mixed with water forms a concrete-like material. In sufficient quantity ash may cause roofs to collapse under its weight, since the ash has the consistency of ground glass it causes abrasion damage to moving parts such as engines. It is believed that Pompeii was destroyed by a pyroclastic flow, a lahar is a volcanic mudflow or landslide. The 1953 Tangiwai disaster was caused by a lahar, as was the 1985 Armero tragedy in which the town of Armero was buried, a specific type of volcano is the supervolcano. It also killed three-quarters of all plant life in the northern hemisphere, the main danger from a supervolcano is the immense cloud of ash, which has a disastrous global effect on climate and temperature for many years. It is a violent, sudden and destructive change either in quality of water or in distribution or movement of water on land below the surface or in atmosphere. A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land, the EU Floods Directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land which is usually not covered by water

12.
Air force
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An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nations armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy, or a marine corps. Typically, air forces are responsible for gaining control of the air, carrying out strategic and tactical bombing missions, Air forces typically consist of a combination of fighters, bombers, helicopters, transport planes and other aircraft. Many air forces are responsible for operations of the military space, intercontinental ballistic missiles. Some air forces may command and control other air defence assets such as artillery, surface-to-air missiles, or anti-ballistic missile warning networks. In addition to pilots, air forces have ground support staff who support the aircrew, however, some supporting personnel such as airfield defence troops, weapons engineers and air intelligence staff do not have equivalent roles in civilian organizations. Balloon or flying corps are not generally regarded as examples of an air force, however, with the invention of heavier-than-air craft in the early 20th century, armies and navies began to take interest in this new form of aviation as a means to wage war. The first aviation force in the world was the Aviation Militaire of the French Army formed in 1910, in 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War, Italy employed aircraft for the first time ever in the world for reconnaissance and bombing missions against Turkish positions on Libyan Territory. The Italian–Turkish war of 1911–1912 was the first in history that featured air attacks by airplanes, during World War I France, Germany, Italy, the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire all possessed significant forces of bombers and fighters. World War I also saw the appearance of senior commanders who directed aerial warfare, the British Royal Air Force was the first independent air force in the world. The RAF was founded on 1 April 1918 by amalgamation the British Armys Royal Flying Corps, on establishment the RAF comprised over 20,000 aircraft, was commanded by a Chief of the Air Staff who held the rank of major-general and was governed by its own government ministry. Over the following decades most countries with any military capability established their own independent air forces. The Canadian Air Force was formed at the end of World War I and it became the permanent Royal Canadian Air Force when it received the Royal title by royal proclamation on 1 April 1924. It did not however become independent of the Canadian Army until 1938 when its head was designated as Chief of the Air Staff. Similarly, the Royal New Zealand Air Force was established in 1923 as the New Zealand Permanent Air Force, other British-influenced countries also established their own independent air forces. For example, the Royal Egyptian Air Force was created in 1937 when Egyptian military aviation was separated from Army command, outside of the British Empire, the Finnish Air Force was established as a separate service on 4 May 1928 and the Brazilian Air Force was created in 1941. Both the United States Air Force and the Philippine Air Force were formed as a separate branches of their armed forces in 1947. The Israeli Air Force came into being with the State of Israel on 18 May 1948, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force was not established until 1954, in World War II Japanese military aviation had been carried out by the Army and Navy

13.
French Air Force
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The French Air Force is the air force of the French Armed Forces. It was formed in 1909 as the Service Aéronautique, an arm of the French Army. The number of aircraft in service with the French Air Force varies depending on source, the French Air Force has 233 combat aircraft in service, with the majority being 125 Dassault Mirage 2000 and 108 Dassault Rafale. As of early 2016, the French Air Force employs a total of 42,607 regular personnel, the reserve element of the air force consisted of 5,187 personnel of the Operational Reserve. The Minister of Defence is responsible for execution of military policy and he is advised by the Chief of Staff of the Armies in regard to the use of forces and the control of military operations. The Chief of Staff of the French Air Force determines the air force doctrines and advises the CEMA how to deploy French air assets and he is responsible for the preparation and logistic support of the air force. The French took active interest in developing the air force from 1909 and had the first World War I fighter pilots, in the post–World War II era, the French made a successful effort to develop a domestic aircraft industry. Dassault Aviation led the way mainly with delta-wing designs, which formed the basis for the Mirage series of jet fighters. The Mirage demonstrated its abilities in the Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, the Falklands War, the French Air Force participated in several protracted colonial wars in Africa and French Indochina after the Second World War, and continues to employ its air power in Africa. The Military Air Transport Command had previously formed in February 1962 from the Groupement dUnités Aériennes Spécialisées. The Dassault Mirage IV, the principal French strategic bomber, was designed to strike Soviet positions as part of the French nuclear triad, also created in 1964 was the Escadron des Fusiliers Commandos de lAir, seemingly grouping all FCA units. CFAS had two squadrons of S-3 IRBMs at the Plateau dAlbion, six squadrons of Mirage IVAs, coTAM counted 28 squadrons, of which ten were fixed-wing transport squadrons, and the remainder helicopter and liaison squadrons, at least five of which were overseas. CAFDA numbered 14 squadrons mostly flying the Mirage F. 1C, two other commands had flying units, the Air Force Schools Command, and the Air Force Transmissions Command, with four squadrons and three trials units. In 1994 the Commandement des Fusiliers Commandos de lAir was established, the French Air Force is expanding and replacing aircraft inventory. After an absence lasting several decades, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that France will rejoin the NATO integrated command, from 2008-2010 the Air Force underwent an organisational streamlining process. This project was called Air 2010, which was the year of the deadline for all transitions, the main targets of this project were to simplify the command structure, to regroup all military and civil air force functions and to rationalise and optimise all air force units. Five major commands, were formed, instead of the former 13, CDAOA CFA CSFA DRHAA SAGF The last remaining squadron of Dassault Mirage F1s were retired in July 2014 and replaced by the Rafale. The Chief of Staff of the French Air Force determines air force doctrine and he is responsible for the preparation and logistic support of the air force

14.
People's Liberation Army Ground Force
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The Peoples Liberation Army Ground Force is the land-based service branch of the Peoples Liberation Army and it is the largest and oldest branch of the entire Chinese armed forces. The PLAGF can trace its lineage from 1927, however, it was not officially established until 1948, as of 2016, the PLAGF has a strength of 1,600,000 personnel making it the largest standing army in the world. In addition, the Peoples Liberation Army Ground Force has an estimated 510,000 strong reserve force, the PLA ground forces consisted of conventionally armed main and regional units, which in 1987 made up over 70 percent of the PLA. It provided a good defense, but had only limited offensive potential and was poorly equipped for nuclear, biological. Regional forces consisted of 73 divisions of border defense and garrison troops plus 140 independent regiments, under the old system, a field army consisted of three partially motorized infantry divisions and two regiments of artillery and anti-aircraft artillery. Each field army division had over 12,000 personnel in three regiments, one artillery regiment, one armored regiment, and one anti-aircraft artillery battalion. Organization was flexible, the higher echelons being free to tailor forces for combat around any number of infantry divisions. The new, main-force group armies typically included 46,300 soldiers in up to four divisions, believed to include infantry, armor, artillery, air defense, airborne, the 13 armored divisions each had 3 regiments and 240 main battle tanks but lacked adequate mechanized infantry support. There was little evidence of the use of armored personnel carriers during the Sino-Vietnamese border conflict in 1979, artillery forces emphasized towed guns, howitzers, and truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers. In the 1980s some self-propelled artillery entered service, but the PLA also produced rocket launchers as a cheaper, there was a variety of construction equipment, mobile bridging, trucks, and prime movers. A new multiple rocket launcher for scattering antitank mines appeared in 1979, regional forces consisted of full-time PLA troops organized as independent divisions for garrison missions. Garrison divisions were static, artillery-heavy units deployed along the coastline, regional forces were armed less heavily than their main-force counterparts, and they were involved in training the militia. They were the PLA units commonly used to restore order during the Cultural Revolution, when chairman Mao proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China on October 1,1949, PLA ground force was 4.9 million-strong peasant army. After some time, demobilization of ill-trained and politically unreliable troops began, in 1987 the PLA ground forces, which relied upon obsolescent but serviceable equipment, were most anxious to improve defenses against armored vehicles and aircraft. Most equipment was produced from Soviet designs of the 1950s, but weapons were being incrementally upgraded, one example of upgraded, Soviet-design equipment was the Type 69 MBT, an improved version of the Type 59 MBT, itself based on the Soviet T-54. The Type 69 had improved armor, a gun stabilizer, a control system including a laser rangefinder, infrared searchlights. In 1987 the existence of a new, Type 80 MBT was revealed in the Western press, the tank had a new chassis, a 105 mm gun, and a fire control system. Production of the Type 80 had not yet begun, the PLA was believed to have atomic demolition munitions, and there were unconfirmed reports that it also had tactical nuclear weapons

15.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing

16.
Indian Army
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The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India serves as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and it is commanded by the Chief of Army Staff, two officers have been conferred with the rank of field marshal, a five-star rank, which is a ceremonial position of great honour. It conducts humanitarian rescue operations during calamities and other disturbances, like Operation Surya Hope. It is a component of national power alongside the Indian Navy. The army has been involved in four wars with neighbouring Pakistan, other major operations undertaken by the army include Operation Vijay, Operation Meghdoot and Operation Cactus. The Indian Army has a system, but is operationally and geographically divided into seven commands. It is a force and comprises more than 80% of the countrys active defence personnel. It is the 2nd largest standing army in the world, with 1,200,255 active troops and 990,960 reserve troops, a Military Department was created within the Government of the East India Company at Kolkata in the year 1776. Its main function was to sift and record orders relating to the Army that were issued by various Departments of the East India Company for the territories under its control. With the Charter Act of 1833, the Secretariat of the Government of the East India Company was reorganised into four Departments, including a Military Department. The army in the Presidencies of Bengal, Bombay & Madras functioned as respective Presidency Army until April 1895, for administrative convenience, it was divided into four commands at that point of time, namely Punjab, Bengal, Madras and Bombay. The British Indian Army was a force for the primacy of the British Empire both in India and across the world. In the 20th century, the Indian Army was an adjunct to the British forces in both the world wars. 1.3 million Indian soldiers served in World War I for the Allies, in 1915 there was a mutiny by Indian soldiers in Singapore. After the United Kingdom made promises of self-governance to the Indian National Congress in return for its support, Britain reneged on its promises after the war, following which the Indian Independence movement gained strength. Indian officers given a Kings commission after passing out were posted to one of the eight selected for Indianisation. In World War II Indian soldiers fought for the Allies, in 1939, British officials had no plan for expansion and training of Indian forces, which comprised about 130,000 men. Their mission was internal security and defence against a possible Soviet threat through Afghanistan, as the war progressed, the size and role of the Indian Army expanded dramatically, and troops were sent to battle fronts as soon as possible

17.
Irregular military
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Irregular military is any non-standard military, that is, distinct from that of the regular army. Being defined by exclusion, there is significant variance in what comes under the term and it can refer to the type of military organization, or to the type of tactics used. An irregular military organization is one which is not part of the army organization. Without standard military unit organization, various more general names are used, such organizations may be called a troop, group, unit, column, band. Irregulars are soldiers or warriors that are members of these organizations and this also applies to irregular troops, irregular infantry and irregular cavalry. Irregular warfare is warfare employing the tactics used by irregular military organizations. This involves avoiding large-scale combat, and focusing on small, stealthy, hit, the words regular and irregular have been used to describe combat forces for hundreds of years, usually with little ambiguity. Due to a chain of command requirements, the regular army is very well defined. In cases where the legitimacy of the army or its opponents is questioned, the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, uses regular armed forces as a critical distinction. The ICRC provided commentary saying that armed forces satisfy four Hague Conventions conditions. The term irregular military describes the how and what, but it is common to focus on the why. Bypassing the legitimate military and taking up arms is an extreme measure, the motivation for doing so is often used as the basis of the primary label for any irregular military. Different terms come in and out of fashion, based on political and emotional associations that develop, here is a list of such terms, organized more or less from oldest to latest. Auxiliaries - foreign or allied troops supplementing the regular army, organized from provincial or tribal regions, in the Imperial Roman army it became common to maintain a number of auxiliaries about equal to the legionaries. Levies - feudal peasants and freemen liable to be called up for military duty. Revolutionary — someone part of a revolution, whether military or not, Guerrilla — someone who uses unconventional military tactics, tends to refer to groups engaged in open conflict rather than underground resistance. Term coined during the Peninsula War in Spain against France, franc-tireur — French irregular forces during the Franco-Prussian War. But is also used in legal cases as a synonym for unprivileged combatant

18.
Militia
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For instance, the members of some U. S. Army National Guard units are considered professional soldiers, as they are trained to maintain the same standards as their full-time counterparts. Militias thus can be military or paramilitary, depending on the instance, some of the contexts in which the term militia is used include, Forces engaged in defense activity or service, to protect a community, its territory, property, and laws. The entire able-bodied population of a community, town, county, or state, a subset of these who may be legally penalized for failing to respond to a call-up. A subset of these who actually respond to a call-up, regardless of legal obligation, a private, non-government force, not necessarily directly supported or sanctioned by its government. An irregular armed force enabling its leader to exercise military, economic, an official reserve army, composed of citizen soldiers. Called by various names in different countries, such as the Army Reserve, National Guard, the national police forces in several former communist states such as the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries, but also in the non-aligned SFR Yugoslavia. The term was inherited in Russia and other former CIS countries, in France the equivalent term Milice has become tainted due to its use by notorious collaborators with Nazi Germany. A select militia is composed of a small, non-representative portion of the population, as regular military forces were insufficient to counter the British attackers, Santiago de Liniers drafted all males in the city capable of bearing arms into the military. These recruits included the peoples, who ranked low down in the social hierarchy. With these reinforcements, the British armies were twice defeated, the militias became a strong factor in the politics of the city afterwards, as a springboard from which the criollos could manifest their political ambitions. They were a key element in the success of the May Revolution, a decree by Mariano Moreno derogated the system of promotions involving criollos, allowing instead their promotion on military merit. The Argentine Civil War was waged by militias again, as both federalists and unitarians drafted common people into their ranks as part of ongoing conflicts and these irregular armies were organized at a provincial level, and assembled as leagues depending on political pacts. This system had declined by the 1870s, mainly due to the establishment of the modern Argentine Army, provincial militias were outlawed and decimated by the new army throughout the presidential terms of Mitre, Sarmiento, Avellaneda and Roca. Armenian militia also played a role in the Georgia-Abkhazia War of 1992–1993, in the Colony of New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie proposed a colonial militia but the idea was rejected. Governor Ralph Darling felt a mounted force was more efficient than a militia. A military volunteer movement attracted wide interest during the Crimean War, following Federation, the various military reserve forces of the Commonwealth of Australia became the Citizen Military Force. In the beginning, members didnt have uniforms and often paraded in business attire and they were given instruction on guerrilla warfare, and later the private organization was taken over by the Australian Government and became part of the Australian Military Forces. After World War I, multiple militias formed as soldiers returned home to their villages, only to many of them occupied by Slovene

19.
Expeditionary warfare
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Expeditionary warfare is the deployment of a states military to fight abroad, especially away from established bases. Expeditionary forces were in part the antecedent of the concept of Rapid Deployment Forces. Traditionally, expeditionary forces were essentially self-sustaining with an organic logistics capability and these operations were conducted as sea, coastal and riverine operations, and sometimes were strategic in nature, reaching as far as Constantinople. Expeditionary warfare in Asia begun very much in the way it had in the Mediterranean with short-term raids by Japanese pirates. Because the Wokou were weakly resisted by the Ming Dynasty, the raiding eventually developed into fully-fledged expeditionary warfare with the Japanese invasions of Korea. Some have argued that this was the first revolution in military affairs that changed national strategies, operational methods, one notable example of this evolution was the French Invasion of Egypt. Though a significantly expanded expeditionary operation, the Crimean War was the first example of an expeditionary campaign that was directed as part of a multinational coalition strategy. It was also the first used as a military instrument to force decision in the conflict. Perhaps unique in the development of warfare were the operations by Yermak during the Russian conquest of Siberia which was a largely land-based operation. This eventually led to the Russian settlement of the Far East and it was at this time that naval troops previously used almost exclusively for defence of vessels or minor beach operations were expanded to enable extended littoral operations. The colonial experience, though confined to the period before the First World War

20.
Fencibles
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They had no liability for overseas service. The Scottish Highlands supplied fencible regiments for most of the half of the 18th century. The first regiment raised was the Argyle Fencibles in 1759 and the last was the MacLeod Fencibles in 1779, in all over 20 regiments were created, although they were not all in existence at the same time. Some Highland fencibles regiments saw action in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, while other performed garrison and policing duties in Britain, Ireland, Fencibles were raised for the entirety of the British Isles. In Thomas Flanagans The Year of the French Fencibles are raised by Cornwallis, Fencible units were raised in the United Kingdom during the early years of the war. This included not only land regiments but also the Sea Fencibles, in the early years of the 19th Century, regiments of Fencibles were raised in the Canadas, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. The regiments were liable for service in North America only, all but one of these regiments saw action in the War of 1812. The regiments were disbanded in 1816 and 1817, after the War of 1812, although the units were disbanded, several regiments in Canada continue to perpetuate their historic lineage. The Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles was formed in February 1812, several months prior to the war, in addition to these Canadian units, the Michigan Fencibles, a small unit of 45 men was raised at Fort Mackinac in 1813. The 5th battalion of the Maratha Light Infantry was raised in December 1800 from the Bombay Fencibles as the 1st Battalion, the Royal Malta Fencible Regiment was in existence from 1815 to 1861 when it became the Royal Malta Fencible Artillery until 1881. The term Fencible was dropped in 1889, in 1847 the Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps were raised and sent to New Zealand for the defence of the early settlers there. They were settled in a four new outlying villages around Auckland, the capital, at Onehunga, Otahuhu, Panmure, and Howick, about 75 fencibles and their sons took part as militia in the 1860s New Zealand Wars. Fencible regiments were less effective than regular troops for duties, with problems of lack of education. The men would take part in inter-regimental brawls and attacks on soldiers, some regiments of Fencibles, however, were noted for exceptional service. A small number of units raised before and during the Civil War used the title fencibles, example include the Texas Fencibles and the Bellefonte Fencibles. A Texas unit called the Panther City Fencibles existed from 1883 to 1898, fullarton and Co. pp. 368–384 The Glengarry Fencibles, Ontario Ontarios Provincial Plaques The Royal New Zealand Fencibles Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies - Royal Fencible Americans

21.
Military organization
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Military organization or military organisation is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer military capability required by the national defense policy. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in an armed forces. Armed forces that are not a part of military or paramilitary organizations, such as insurgent forces, often mimic military organizations, the use of formalized ranks in a hierarchical structure came into widespread use with the Roman Army. These in turn manage Armed Services that themselves command combat, combat support and combat support formations. Within each departmental agency will be found administrative branches responsible for further agency business specialization work, in most countries the armed forces are divided into three or four Armed services, army, navy, and air force. Many countries have a variation on the model of three or four basic Armed Services. Some nations also organize their marines, special forces or strategic missile forces as independent armed services, a nations coast guard may also be an independent military branch of its military, although in many nations the coast guard is a law enforcement or civil agency. A number of countries have no navy, for geographical reasons, most smaller countries have a single organization that encompasses all armed forces employed by the country in question. Third-world armies tend to consist primarily of infantry, while first-world armies tend to have larger units manning expensive equipment and it is worthwhile to make mention of the term joint. In western militaries, a joint force is defined as a unit or formation comprising representation of power from two or more branches of the military. It is common, at least in the European and North American militaries, to refer to the blocks of a military as commands, formations. In a military context, a command is a collection of units and it is not uncommon for a nations services to each consist of their own command, but this does not preclude the existence of commands which are not service-based. A formation is defined by the US Department of Defense as two or more aircraft, ships, or units proceeding together under a commander. The formations only differ in their ability to achieve different scales of application of force to achieve different strategic, operational and tactical goals and it is a composite military organization that includes a mixture of integrated and operationally attached sub-units, and is usually combat-capable. Example of formations include, divisions, brigades, battalions, wings, formation may also refer to tactical formation, the physical arrangement or disposition of troops and weapons. Examples of formation in such usage include, pakfront, panzerkeil, testudo formation, any unit subordinate to another unit is considered its sub-unit or minor unit. It is not uncommon for unit and formation to be used synonymously in the United States, in Commonwealth practice, formation is not used for smaller organizations like battalions which are instead called units, and their constituent platoons or companies are referred to as sub-units. In the Commonwealth, formations are divisions, brigades, etc, different armed forces, and even different branches of service of the armed forces, may use the same name to denote different types of organizations

22.
Fireteam
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A fireteam is a small military sub-subunit of infantry designed to optimize bounding overwatch and fire and movement tactical doctrine in combat. Two or three fireteams are organized into a squad or section in coordinated operations, which is led by a squad leader, military theorists consider effective fireteams as essential for modern professional militaries as they serve as a primary group. Fireteams are the second smallest organized unit in the militaries that use it, the concept of the fireteam is based on the need for tactical flexibility in infantry operations. A fireteam is capable of operations as part of a larger unit. These requirements have led to use of the fireteam concept by more professional militaries. It is less useful for armies employing massed infantry formations, or with significant conscription, conscription makes fireteam development difficult, as team members are more effective as they build experience over time working together and building personal bonds. The creation of effective fireteams is seen as essential for creating a professional military as they serve as a primary group. Historically, nations with effective fireteam organization have had better performance from their infantry units in combat than those limited to operations by larger units. In open terrain, up to 500 metres can be covered by an effective team, a team is effective so long as its primary weapon remains operational. Infantry units of the British Army, Royal Marines and RAF Regiment use the fireteam concept, an infantry section of eight men contains two fireteams, Charlie and Delta, each comprising an NCO and three Privates. Team Leader, The NCO will carry an L85A2 rifle with an L17A2 underslung grenade launcher, some units vary with one of the privates carrying the grenade launcher rather than the NCO. Rifleman, One private carries the L85A2 rifle, Automatic Rifleman, One private carries L110A1 light machine gun or L86A2 light support weapon. Designated marksman, One private carries the L129A1 designated marksman rifle, in the Canadian Army fireteam refers to two soldiers paired for fire and movement. Two fireteams form a group and two assault groups form a section of eight soldiers. The French Section is divided into two teams, the Fire Team is based around the section-level automatic rifle or light machine gun. The Shock Team, made up of riflemen armed with grenades or disposable rocket launchers, is the reconnaissance. The teams employ bounding overwatch, with one element covering as the other moves, the team leaders have handheld radios so the elements can stay in contact with each other, as well as with the section leaders backpack radio set. The most common symbol of the modern French junior NCO has been a radio hanging around their neck, the U. S. Army particularly emphasizes the fireteam concept

23.
Squad
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In military terminology, a squad is a sub-subunit led by a non-commissioned officer that is subordinate to an infantry platoon. In countries following the British Army tradition, this organization is referred to as a section, in most armies, a squad consists of eight to fourteen soldiers, and may be further subdivided into fireteams. During World War 2 the German Wehrmacht infantry squad or Gruppe was mainly a general purpose machine gun based unit, the MG34 or MG42 GPMGs were normally used in the light machine gun role. An infantry Gruppe consisted of ten men, an officer or Unteroffizier squad leader, deputy squad leader. The riflemen carried additional ammunition, hand grenades, explosive charges or a machine gun tripod as required and provided security and covering fire for the machine gun team. Historically, a squad in the US Army was a sub-unit of a section, the smallest tactical sub-unit being the section, which was also known as a half-platoon. Depending upon the period, the squad leader could be a sergeant, a corporal, a lance corporal. In 1891, the US Army officially defined a rifle squad as consisting of seven privates, under the Triangular Division organization plan in 1939 rifle squads were no longer organized into sections. This soldier could serve as a either the squad leaders messenger to the commander or could be used to relay orders to other squad elements. However, the obvious weakness of so large a squad under one NCO rapidly became obvious in light of the pre-war mobilization and was corrected in 1940 when a second NCO was added to the squad. This adjustment raised the squad leader to a sergeant and the assistant squad leader to a corporal, the platoon leader now became a staff sergeant. This squad organization included two men serving as “scout, ” who along with the leader, formed the security element, designated as “Able. ”The second element was a three-man Browning Automatic Rifle team consisting of an automatic rifleman, an assistant automatic rifleman. This element formed the “base of fire” and was designated as “Baker. ”Lastly, there were five riflemen and the assistant squad leader, the BAR man and the senior rifleman of the Charlie element became corporals and de facto team leaders, even though not officially designated as such. After WWII, in 1948, the Army decided to downsize” the rifle squad to an organization, as post-war analysis had shown that the 12-man squad was too large. The five riflemen of the team, now led by the squad leader. In 1951 the pay grades were reversed, with master sergeant becoming E-7 and sergeant first class becoming E-6, so that the leader became a sergeant and the assistant squad leader. In the 1956 the Army began reorganizing into its Pentomic” plan under the ROCID TO&Es, the rifle squad was reorganized into an eleven-man organization with a sergeant as squad leader and two five-man fire teams. Each fire team consisted of a team leader, an automatic rifleman, an assistant automatic rifleman, a grenadier

24.
Aircrew
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Aircrew, also called flight crew, are personnel who operate an aircraft while in flight. The composition of a flights crew depends on the type of aircraft, plus the duration, in commercial aviation, the aircrew are called flight crew. Historical flightdeck positions include, Captain, the designated as the Pilot-In-Command. First Officer, another pilot who is not the pilot-in-command, and is seated to the right of the captain. Second Officer, a person lower in rank to the First Officer, the rank of Second Officer was traditionally a Flight Engineer, who was often the person who handled the engine controls. In the 21st century second officers on some airlines are pilots who act as relief on long haul flights. Third Officer, a person lower in rank to a Second Officer, largely redundant in the present day. The number of crew members assigned to a flight depends in part on the length of the flight. Flight Engineer, an originally called an Air Mechanic. On older aircraft, typically between the late-1920s and the 1970s, the Flight Engineer was the member responsible for engines, systems. The Flight Engineers position is commonly staffed as a Second Officer, Flight engineers can still be found in the present day, used on airline or air freight operations still flying such older aircraft. The position is typically crewed by a dual-licensed Pilot-Flight Engineer in the present day, the airborne sensor operator is considered a principal flight crew or aircrew member. Navigator, also called Air Navigators or Flight Navigators, modern electronic navigation systems made the navigator redundant by the early 1980s. Aircraft cabin crew members can consist of, Purser or In-flight Service Manager or Cabin Services Director, is responsible for the crew as a team leader. Flight attendant or Cabin Crew, is the member responsible for the safety of passengers. Historically during the era of commercial aviation, the position was staffed by young cabin boys who assisted passengers. Cabin boys were replaced by female nurses, originally called stewardesses, the medical background requirement for the flight attendant position was later dropped. Flight medic, is a specialized paramedic employed on air ambulance aircraft or flights, on non-cargo aircraft, weight and balance tasks are performed by the flight crew

25.
Section (military unit)
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A section is a military sub-subunit. It usually consists of six and 20 personnel, and is usually an alternate name for, and equivalent to. As such two or more sections usually make up a platoon or an air force flight. However, in the French Army and in armies based on the French model, under the new structure of the infantry platoon, Australian Army sections are made up of eight men divided into two four-man fireteams. Each fireteam consists of a leader, a marksman with enhanced optics, a grenadier with an M203. Typical fire team structure, At the start of World War I, the Australian Army used a section that consisted of 27 men including the section commander, during World War II, a rifle section comprised ten soldiers with a corporal in command and a lance-corporal as his second-in-command. The corporal used an M1928 Thompson submachine gun, while one of the privates used a Bren gun, the other eight soldiers all used No.1 Mk.3 Lee–Enfield rifles with a bayonet and scabbard. They all carried two or three No.36 Mills bomb grenades, post–World War II, and during the Vietnam War, a rifle section consisted of ten personnel comprising, a command & scout group, a gun group and a rifle group. The British Army section now consists of eight soldiers made up of a Corporal as the section commander, three sections together form a platoon. In conventional warfare, the section is split into two four-man fireteams, commanded by the corporal and lance-corporal respectively. With the switch from.303 to 7. 62mm NATO in the 1950s until the introduction of 5.56 mm calibre weapons in the late 1980s, the section was typically divided into two groups, a rifle group and a gun group. The gun group was commanded by the section 2IC with an L1A1, and comprised the gunner with the GPMG and this organization was abandoned in favour of fireteams when 5.56 mm assault rifles and SAWs were introduced in the late 1980s. These were the L85 IW and the longer-barrelled L86 LSW, the firepower of the team has now been extended by the L110A1 LMG. The LSW is now used as a designated marksmans rifle. Each fire team has two IW, one with a grenade launcher, one LSW and one LMG. An infantry section now consists of, Charlie Fireteam, Corporal, rifleman, armed with an L85A25. 56mm rifle with 40mm underslung grenade launcher. Rifleman, armed with an L110A15. 56mm light machine gun, rifleman, armed with an L129A17. 62x51 mm sharpshooter rifle. Delta Fireteam, Lance Corporal, armed with an L85A25. 56mm rifle, rifleman, armed with an L85A25. 56mm rifle with 40mm underslung grenade launcher

26.
Patrol
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A patrol is commonly a group of personnel, such as law enforcement officers or military personnel, that are assigned to monitor a specific geographic area. This is also referred to as a beat. The basic task of a patrol is to follow a route with the purpose of investigating some feature of interest or, in the assignment of a fighting patrol, to find. A patrol can also mean a small cavalry or armoured unit, subordinate to a troop or platoon, usually comprising a section or squad of mounted troopers, or two AFVs. A patrol officer is often the first to arrive on the scene of any incident, the patrol officer, as the person who is in the field daily, is often closest to potential crime and may have developed contacts who can provide information. The Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment, a randomized control trial conducted by Temple University, has shown that foot patrols reduce crime, with the resources to patrol 60 locations, researchers identified the highest violent crime corners in the city, using data from 2006 to 2008. Officers generally patrolled in pairs with two assigned to each foot patrol. After three months, relative to the areas, violent crime decreased 23%. The privatization of police is explored in James Pastors book The Privatization of Police in America, An Analysis, from French patrouiller from Old French patouiller from patte. Another common term for use of patrol is hall monitor. In Scouting, a patrol is six to eight Scouts under the leadership of one of their number who is appointed Patrol Leader and this is the basic unit of a Scout troop. The Patrol method is a characteristic of Scouting by which it differs from all other organizations

27.
Platoon
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A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads/sections/patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, a platoon leader or commander is the officer in command of a platoon. This person is usually a junior officer—a second or first lieutenant or an equivalent rank, the officer is usually assisted by a platoon sergeant. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer, Platoons normally consist of three or four sections or squads. In some armies, platoon is used throughout the branches of the army, in others, such as the British Army and other Commonwealth armies, platoons are associated with the infantry. In a few armies, such as the French Army, a platoon is specifically a cavalry unit, a unit consisting of several platoons is called a company/battery/troop. According to Merriam-Webster, The term was first used in the 17th century to refer to a body of musketeers who fired together in a volley alternately with another platoon. The word came from the 17th-century French peloton, from pelote meaning a small ball, nonetheless it is documented that it took the meaning of a group of soldiers firing a volley together, while a different platoon reloaded. This implies an augmentative intention in the etymology, the modern French word peloton, when not meaning platoon, can refer to the main body of riders in a bicycle race. Pelote itself originally comes from the low Latin pilotta from Latin pila, meaning ball, the platoon was originally a firing unit rather than an organization. The system was said to have been invented by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in 1618, in the French Army in the 1670s, a battalion was divided into 18 platoons who were grouped into three firings, each platoon in the firing either actually firing or reloading. The system was used in the British, Austrian, Russian. Each platoon was divided into four sections, each commanded by a corporal, due to a shortage of officers, a non commissioned officer rank of Platoon Sergeant Major was introduced from 1938 to 1940 for experienced non-commissioned officers who were given command of platoons. In the Australian Army, an infantry platoon has thirty-six soldiers organized into three sections and a twelve-man maneuver support section. A lieutenant as platoon commander and a sergeant as platoon sergeant, accompanied by a platoon sig, a section comprises eight soldiers led by a corporal with a lance corporal as second in command. Each section has two fireteams of four men, one led by the corporal and the other by the lance corporal, each fireteam has one soldier with a 7. 62mm Maximi GSMG and the other three armed with Steyr F88 assault rifles. One rifle is equipped with an attached 40mm grenade launcher attachment for the lance corporal, more recently, the designated marksman of an Australian fireteam has been issued the HK417 in Afghanistan and possibly afterwards. The platoon may also have three MAG58 general-purpose machine guns, one M2 Browning heavy machine gun or a Mk 19 grenade launcher at its disposal and this may not be the case for all British Infantry units, since the 51mm mortars are not part of the TOE post-Afghanistan

28.
Flight (military unit)
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A flight is a military unit in an air force, naval air service, or army air corps. It is usually composed of three to six aircraft, with their aircrews and ground staff, or, in the case of a non-flying ground flight, no aircraft, in most usages, multiple flights make up a squadron. The flight is also a unit for intercontinental ballistic missiles. Foreign languages equivalents include escadrille, escuadrilla, esquadrilha and Schwarm, the use of the term flight to describe a collection of aircraft dates back to around 1912. Winston Churchill claimed to have invented the term while he was learning to fly with the Royal Navys embryonic air service. It has also suggested that the term was coined by technical sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence which was examining the British air arrangements around the same time. More recently, however, it has become common for a flight to be led by a squadron leader—a formal rank distinct from a squadron commander—equivalent to a major or naval lieutenant commander. A flight is usually divided into two sections, each containing two to three aircraft, which share ground staff with the section, and are usually commanded by a flight lieutenant. The Royal Navys Fleet Air Arm, the Army Air Corps, in the Fleet Air Arm a flight could be as few as 1 helicopter operating from a smaller ship. An air force ground flight is equivalent to an army platoon and may be commanded by a flight lieutenant, flying officer, pilot officer. A flight is also a unit of guided missiles, such as surface-to-air missiles. The United States Air Force has three types of flights, numbered, alphabetic, and aircraft. A numbered flight is a unit with a base, wing, group, or Numbered Air Force mission, such as training or finance. Numbered flights are uncommon, and are only found in basic training facilities. In USAF flying squadrons, the flight also designates a tactical sub-unit of a squadron consisting of two or three elements, with each element consisting of two or three aircraft. The flight operates under the command of a flight leader. Five of these make up one missile squadron. The Air Force has a total of 45 ICBM missile flights, australian War Memorial,2005, RAAF, Structure

29.
Company (military unit)
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A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–250 soldiers and usually commanded by a major or a captain. Most companies are formed of three to six platoons, although the number may vary by country, unit type. Usually several companies are grouped as a battalion or regiment, the latter of which is formed by several battalions. Occasionally, independent or separate companies are organized for special purposes and these companies are not organic to a battalion or regiment, but rather report directly to a higher level organization such as a Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters. The modern military company became popularized during the reorganization of the Swedish Army in 1631 under King Gustav II Adolph, for administrative purposes, the infantry was divided into companies consisting of 150 men, grouped into regiments of eight companies. Tactically, the companies were organized into battalions and grouped with cavalry troops. From ancient times, some armies have used a base administrative. Furthermore, recent studies have indicated that humans are best able to maintain stable relationships in a group numbering between 100-250 members, with 150 members being the common number. The advent of accurate, long-range rifle fire, repeating rifles and this, coupled with the advent of radio communication, permitted relatively small numbers of men to have much greater firepower and combat effectiveness than previously possible. Companies, however, continue to remain within the range of 100-250 members, perhaps validating the premise that men fight best in organizations of around 150 members. These companies were not organic to any intermediate headquarters, but rather reported directly to the division headquarters, rifle companies consist of three platoons and a company headquarters. Until after the Second World War, the Royal Engineers and Royal Signals had both squadrons and companies depending on whether the units were supporting mounted or foot formations. The British Army infantry normally identifies its rifle companies by letter within a battalion, usually with the addition of a headquarters company and a support/heavy weapons company. Some units name their companies after regimental battle honours, this is commonly the case for composite units, for example the London Regiment with its Somme, Messines and Cambrai companies. The foot guards regiments use traditional names for some of their companies, for example Queens Company, Left Flank, Royal Marines companies are designated by a letter that is unique across the corps, not just within their command. The Intelligence Corps, Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Military Police, the defunct Royal Army Service Corps, Royal Pioneer Corps and Royal Army Ordnance Corps had companies, the Royal Corps of Transport had squadrons. British companies are commanded by a major, the officer commanding. The Honourable Artillery Company is in fact a regiment, not a company, in terms of organisation, canadian Army organisation is modelled after the British

30.
Artillery battery
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The term is also used in a naval context to describe groups of guns on warships. Historically the term referred to a cluster of cannon in action as a group. Such batteries could be a mixture of cannon, howitzer, or mortar types, a siege could involve many batteries at different sites around the besieged place. The term also came to be used for a group of cannon in a fixed fortification and they were usually organised with between six and 12 ordnance pieces, often including cannon and howitzers. By the late 19th century battery had become standard mostly replacing company or troop, in the 20th century the term was generally used for the company level sub-unit of an artillery branch including field, air-defence, anti-tank and position. 20th-century firing batteries have been equipped with mortars, guns, howitzers, rockets, during the Napoleonic Wars some armies started grouping their batteries into larger administrative and field units. Groups of batteries combined for field combat employment called Grand Batteries by Napoleon, administratively batteries were usually grouped in battalions, regiments or squadrons and these developed into tactical organisations. These were further grouped into regiments, simply group or brigades, to further concentrate fire of individual batteries, from World War I they were grouped into artillery divisions in a few armies. Coastal artillery sometimes had completely different organizational terms based on shore defence sector areas, the rank of a battery commander has also varied, but is usually a lieutenant, captain, or major. The number of guns, howitzers, mortars or launchers in a battery has also varied. In the 19th century four to 12 guns was usual as the number to maneuver into the gun line. By late 19th century the artillery battery was divided into a gun line. The gun line consisted of six guns and 12 ammunition mules, during the American Civil War, artillery batteries often consisted of six field pieces for the Union Army and four for the Confederate States Army, although this varied. Batteries were divided into sections of two guns apiece, each section normally under the command of a lieutenant, the full battery was typically commanded by a captain. Often, particularly as the war progressed, individual batteries were grouped into battalions under a major or colonel of artillery, in the 20th century it varied between four and 12 for field artillery, or even two pieces for very heavy pieces. Other types of such as anti-tank or anti-aircraft have sometimes been larger. Some batteries have been dual-equipped with two different types of gun or mortar, and taking whichever was more appropriate when they deployed for operations, from the late 19th century field artillery batteries started to become more complex organisations. Fixed artillery refers to guns or howitzers on mounts that were anchored in one spot, or on carriages intended to be moved only for the purposes of aiming

31.
Troop
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A troop is a military sub-subunit, originally a small formation of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron. In many armies a troop is the equivalent element to the section or platoon. Exceptions are the Royal Horse Artillery and the US Cavalry, where troops are subunits that compare to a company or artillery battery. A cavalry soldier of private rank is called a trooper in many Commonwealth armies, a related sense of the term troops refers to members of the military collectively, as in the troops, see Troop. In some countries, like Italy, the cavalry unit is called Squadron. Today, a troop is defined differently in different armed forces, SASR troops are also unusual as they are commanded by a captain—most troop/platoon sized elements are commanded by a lieutenant. In all cases, units which refer to platoon sized elements as troops refer to company-sized elements as squadrons, privates in the RAAC and SASR hold the rank trooper, however this is not the case for any other Corps/units which use the term troops. In the British Army the definition of a troop varies by corps, household Cavalry and Royal Armoured Corps, Three or four armoured fighting vehicles commanded by a subaltern, i. e. effectively the same level element as an infantry platoon. A unit of two to four guns or launchers, or an equivalent headquarters unit, in the Royal Horse Artillery, a troop used to be the equivalent to a battery in other artillery units. The Royal Engineers and Royal Corps of Signals used platoons instead until after World War II, other army corps do not use the term. In the Royal Marines, a troop is the equivalent to an army platoon, in the Canadian Army, a troop is the equivalent of a platoon within the armoured, artillery, engineer, and signals branches. Two to four troops comprise the elements of a squadron. Companies were renamed troops in 1883, in the United States, state police forces are often regionally divided into troops. This usage came about from these organizations modelling themselves on the US Army, for this same reason the state police and highway patrol personnel of most states are known as trooper rather than officer. In Scouting, a troop is a made up of scouts or guides from the same locality under a leader. In the case of Guides, the company is used more often

32.
Battalion
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A battalion is a military unit. The use of the term varies by nationality and branch of service. Typically a battalion consists of 300 to 800 soldiers and is divided into a number of companies, a battalion is typically commanded by a lieutenant colonel. In some countries the word battalion is associated with the infantry, the term was first used in Italian as battaglione no later than the 16th century. It derived from the Italian word for battle, battaglia, the first use of battalion in English was in the 1580s, and the first use to mean part of a regiment is from 1708. The battalion must, of course, have a source of re-supply to enable it to sustain operations for more than a few days, the battalion is usually part of a regiment, brigade, or group, depending on the organizational model used by that service. The bulk of a battalions companies are often homogeneous with respect to type, a battalion includes a headquarters company and some sort of combat service support, typically organized within a combat support company. The term battalion is used in the British Army Infantry and some including the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. It was formerly used in the Royal Engineers, and was used in the now defunct Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Other corps usually use the term regiment instead, an infantry battalion is numbered ordinarily within its regiment. It normally has a company, support company, and three rifle companies. Each company is commanded by a major, the officer commanding, the HQ company contains signals, quartermaster, catering, intelligence, administration, pay, training, operations and medical elements. The support company usually contains anti-tank, machine gun, mortar, pioneer, mechanised units usually have an attached light aid detachment of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers to perform field repairs on vehicles and equipment. A British battalion in theatre during World War II had around 845 men in it, and, as of 2012, with successive rounds of cutbacks after the war, many infantry regiments were reduced to a single battalion. A battalion group or battlegroup consists of a battalion or armoured regiment with sub-units detached from other military units acting under the command of the battalion commander. In the Canadian Forces, most battalions are reserve units of between 100–200 soldiers that include an operationally ready, field-deployable component of approximately a half-company apiece, the nine regular force infantry battalions each contain three or four rifle companies and one or two support companies. Canadian battalions are generally commanded by lieutenant-colonels, though smaller reserve battalions may be commanded by majors, with the Dutch artillery units, the equivalent of a battalion is called an afdeling. Combat companies consist of infantry, combat engineers, or tanks, in the latter case, the unit is called an eskadron, which translates roughly to squadron

33.
Cohort (military unit)
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A cohort was the standard tactical unit of a Roman legion and was composed of 360 soldiers. A Cohort is considered to be the equivalent of a military battalion. The Cohort unit replaced the system following the reforms traditionally attributed to Gaius Marius in 107 BC. Until the middle of the first century AD,10 cohorts made up a Roman Legion, during the 1st century AD, the command structure and make-up of the legions was formally laid down, in a form that would endure for centuries. The first cohort was now made up of five double-strength centuries totalling 800 men and this century was known as the primus pilii, and its centurion was known as the primus pilus. The Primus Pilus could be promoted to Praefectus Castrorum, or Camp Prefect, the Praefectus Castrorum would be in charge of the daily running of a legion. The other cohort consisted of approximately 480 men in six centuriae of 80 men, at various times prior to the reforms, a century might have meant a unit of 60 to 80. The cohort had no permanent commander, it is assumed that in combat, in order of seniority, the six centurions were titled hastatus posterior, hastatus prior, princeps posterior, princeps prior, pilus posterior and pilus prior. The legion at this time numbered about 5,400 men, including officers, engineers, auxiliary cohorts could be quinquagenaria or milliaria. The term was first used to refer to the bodyguard of a general during the Republic, later, cohors togata was a unit of the Praetorian guard in civilian dress tasked with duties within the pomerium. Cohortes urbanae, urban cohort, military police unit patrolling in the capital, cohortes vigilum, watchmen, unit of the police force which also was the fire brigade in the capital. Cohors Germanorum, the unit of Germani custodes corporis, furthermore, the Latin word cohors was used in a looser way to describe a rather large company of people. Auxiliaries List of Roman auxiliary regiments

34.
Squadron (army)
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A squadron was historically a cavalry subunit, a company sized military formation. The term is used to refer to modern cavalry units but can also be used as a designation for other arms. In some countries, like Italy, the cavalry unit is called Squadron Group. Prior to the revisions in the US Army structure in the 1880s, US Cavalry regiments were divided into companies, the reorganizations converted companies to troops and battalions to squadrons, and made squadrons tactical formations as well as administrative ones. In the British Army and many other Commonwealth armies, a squadron is the Royal Armoured Corps counterpart of a company or artillery battery. A squadron is a sub-unit of a formation, and is usually made up of two or more troops. Squadrons are commonly designated using letters or numbers, in some British Army units it is a tradition for squadrons to also be named after an important historical battle in which the regiment has taken part. For example, the Royal Armoured Corps Training Regiment assigns trainees to Waterloo Squadron, in some special cases, squadrons can also be named after a unique honour which has been bestowed on the unit. The modern French Army is composed of troupes à pied and troupes à cheval, nowadays, the term escadron is used to describe a company of mounted soldiers but, for a long time, a cavalry escadron corresponded to an infantry battalion, both units grouping several companies. The term compagnie has been discontinued and replaced by escadron in cavalry units since 1815, in the mounted arms a captain in charge of an escadron is thus called a chef descadron. However, his superior in the hierarchy has the rank of chef descadrons. After 1815, the army began to write chef descadrons with an s in cavalry units to reflect the fact that this officer who used to be in charge of one squadron was now in charge of several squadrons. In other mounted branches, chef descadron is still spelled without s, the Norwegian army operates with units called eskadroner, typically a company-equivalent unit, generally in armoured cavalry units although not always. The 2nd Battalion, Brigade Nord, has a company-equivalent unit called kavalerieskadronen and it serves as the main reconnaissance unit in the battalion. Like the mechanized units, it wears the distinct khaki-coloured beret of the battalion instead of the normal black for cavalry units. The Armoured Battalion has the majority of its constituents labeled eskadroner, including the Cavalry Squadron, the Armoured Squadron and the Assault Squadrons. It also includes the battalions Support element, the Combat Support Squadron and its members are also referred to as dragoons, reflecting the nature of the unit. The Telemark Battalion also has a number of units labelled eskadroner and this includes the Armoured Squadron, the Cavalry Squadron and the Combat Support Squadron

35.
Regiment
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A regiment is a military unit. Their role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, in Medieval Europe, the term regiment denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted in one geographical area, by a leader who was often also the feudal lord of the soldiers. By the 17th century, a regiment was usually about a thousand personnel. In many armies, the first role has been assumed by independent battalions, battlegroups, task forces, brigades and other, similarly-sized operational units. By the beginning of the 18th century, regiments in most European continental armies had evolved into permanent units with distinctive titles and uniforms, when at full strength, an infantry regiment normally comprised two field battalions of about 800 men each or 8–10 companies. In some armies, an independent regiment with fewer companies was labelled a demi-regiment, a cavalry regiment numbered 600 to 900 troopers, making up a single entity. With the widespread adoption of conscription in European armies during the nineteenth century, the regimental system underwent modification. Prior to World War I, a regiment in the French, German, Russian. As far as possible, the battalions would be garrisoned in the same military district, so that the regiment could be mobilized. A cavalry regiment by contrast made up an entity of up to 1,000 troopers. Usually, the regiment is responsible for recruiting and administering all of a military career. Depending upon the country, regiments can be either combat units or administrative units or both and this is often contrasted to the continental system adopted by many armies. Generally, divisions are garrisoned together and share the same installations, thus, in divisional administration, soldiers and officers are transferred in and out of divisions as required. Some regiments recruited from specific areas, and usually incorporated the place name into the regimental name. In other cases, regiments would recruit from an age group within a nation. In other cases, new regiments were raised for new functions within an army, e. g. the Fusiliers, the Parachute Regiment, a key aspect of the regimental system is that the regiment or battalion is the fundamental tactical building block. This flows historically from the period, when battalions were widely dispersed and virtually autonomous. For example, a regiment might include different types of battalions of different origins, within the regimental system, soldiers, and usually officers, are always posted to a tactical unit of their own regiment whenever posted to field duty

36.
Brigade
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A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment, two or more brigades may constitute a division. Brigades formed into divisions are usually infantry or armored, in addition to combat units, they may include combat support units or sub-units, such as artillery and engineers, and logistic units or sub-units. Historically, such brigades have sometimes been called brigade-groups, on operations, a brigade may comprise both organic elements and attached elements, including some temporarily attached for a specific task. Brigades may also be specialized and comprise battalions of a branch, for example cavalry, mechanized, armored, artillery, air defence, aviation, engineers. Some brigades are classified as independent or separate and operate independently from the division structure. The typical NATO standard brigade consists of approximately 3,200 to 5,500 troops, however, in Switzerland and Austria, the numbers could go as high as 11,000 troops. The Soviet Union, its forerunners and successors, mostly use regiment instead of brigade, a brigades commander is commonly a major general, brigadier general, brigadier or colonel. In some armies, the commander is rated as a General Officer, the brigade commander has a self-contained headquarters and staff. Some brigades may also have a deputy commander, the headquarters has a nucleus of staff officers and support that can vary in size depending on the type of brigade. On operations, additional specialist elements may be attached, the headquarters will usually have its own communications unit. In some gendarmerie forces, brigades are the organizational unit. The brigade as a military unit came about starting in the 15th century when the British army, as such a field army became larger, the number of subordinate commanders became unmanageable for the officer in general command of said army, usually a major general, to effectively command. In order to streamline command relationships, as well as effect some modicum of control, especially in regard to combined arms operations. The terms origin is found in two French roots, which together, meant roughly those who fight, the so-called brigada was a well-mixed unit, comprising infantry, cavalry and normally also artillery, designated for a special task. The size of such brigada ranged from a company of up to two regiments. The brigada was the forerunner of the battalion task force, battle group. The brigade was improved as a unit by the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus

37.
Wing (military aviation unit)
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In military aviation, a wing is a unit of command. In most military services, a wing is a relatively large formation of planes. In Commonwealth countries a wing usually comprises three squadrons, with several wings forming a group, each squadron will contain around 20 planes. On its establishment in 1912, the British Royal Flying Corps was intended to be an inter-service, combined force of the British Army and Royal Navy. Given the rivalry existed between the army and navy, new terminology was used, in order to avoid marking the corps out as having an army or navy ethos. While the term wing had been used in the cavalry, its general use predominated. Accordingly, the wing, with its allusion of flight, was chosen as the term of subdivision and the corps was split into a Military Wing. Each wing consisted of a number of squadrons, by 1914, the naval wing had become the Royal Naval Air Service, and gained its independence from the Royal Flying Corps. The Royal Flying Corps was amalgamated with the Royal Naval Air Service in 1918, the RFC usage of wing was maintained in the new service. In most Commonwealth air forces, as well as some others, in these air forces a wing is inferior to a group. Originally all wings were commanded by a wing commander. From World War II onwards, operational flying wings have usually been commanded by group captains, a wing may also be used for non-flying units, such as the infantry forces of the RAF Regiment. Additionally, RAF stations are divided into wings. In 2006, expeditionary air wings were established at the RAFs main operating bases and these expeditionary air wings consist of the deployable elements of the main operating base and other supplementary forces. Expeditionary air wings may be subordinated to an air group. In the British Air Training Corps, a wing consists of a number of squadrons within a geographical area. In this context, a wing is inferior to a region which is made up of six wings, in all, there are 36 Air Training Corps wings in six regions within the United Kingdom, each of which is commanded by a RAFVR wing commander. The size of a wing follows US usage, it varies greatly, in the 1990s, the Canadian Forces Air Command altered the structure of those bases under its control, declaring them to be Wings under the overall control of 1 Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg

38.
Division (military)
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A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. Infantry divisions during the World Wars ranged between 10,000 and 30,000 in nominal strength, in most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. In the West, the first general to think of organising an army into smaller units was Maurice de Saxe, Marshal General of France. He died at the age of 54, without having implemented his idea, victor-François de Broglie put the ideas into practice. He conducted successful practical experiments of the system in the Seven Years War. The first war in which the system was used systematically was the French Revolutionary War. It made the more flexible and easy to manoeuvre. Under Napoleon, the divisions were grouped together into corps, because of their increasing size, napoleons military success spread the divisional and corps system all over Europe, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, all armies in Europe had adopted it. In modern times, most military forces have standardized their divisional structures, the peak use of the division as the primary combat unit occurred during World War II, when the belligerents deployed over a thousand divisions. With technological advances since then, the power of each division has increased. Divisions are often formed to organize units of a particular type together with support units to allow independent operations. In more recent times, divisions have mainly been organized as combined arms units with subordinate units representing various combat arms, in this case, the division often retains the name of a more specialized division, and may still be tasked with a primary role suited to that specialization. For the most part, large cavalry units did not remain after World War II, in general, two new types of cavalry were developed, air cavalry or airmobile, relying on helicopter mobility, and armored cavalry, based on an autonomous armored formation. The former was pioneered by the 11th Air Assault Division, formed on 1 February 1963 at Fort Benning, on 29 June 1965 the division was renamed as the 1st Cavalry Division, before its departure for the Vietnam War. After the end of the Vietnam War, the 1st Cavalry Division was reorganised and re-equipped with tanks, the development of the tank during World War I prompted some nations to experiment with forming them into division-size units. Many did this the way as they did cavalry divisions, by merely replacing cavalry with AFVs. This proved unwieldy in combat, as the units had many tanks, instead, a more balanced approach was taken by adjusting the number of tank, infantry, artillery, and support units. A panzer division was a division of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS of Germany during World War II

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Corps
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A corps is a military unit usually consisting of several divisions. Some military service branches are also called corps, such as the Military Police Corps, Royal Logistic Corps, Quartermaster Corps, a few civilian organizations use the name corps to imply a similar service level, such as the Peace Corps. In many armies, a corps is a formation composed of two or more divisions, and typically commanded by a lieutenant general. During World War I and World War II, due to the scale of combat. In Western armies with numbered corps, the number is indicated in Roman numerals. II Corps was also formed, with Militia units, to defend south-eastern Australia, sub-corps formations controlled Allied land forces in the remainder of Australia. I Corps headquarters was assigned control of the New Guinea campaign. In early 1945, when I Corps was assigned the task of re-taking Borneo, the Canadian Corps consisted of four Canadian divisions. After the Armistice, the peacetime Canadian militia was organized into corps and divisions. Early in the Second World War, Canadas contribution to the British-French forces fighting the Germans was limited to a single division, after the fall of France in June 1940, a second division moved to England, coming under command of a Canadian corps headquarters. This corps was renamed I Canadian Corps as a corps headquarters was established in the UK. I Canadian Corps eventually fought in Italy, II Canadian Corps in NW Europe, after the formations were disbanded after VE Day, Canada has never subsequently organized a Corps headquarters. The Chinese Republic had 133 Corps during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Corps became the basic tactical unit of the NRA having strength nearly equivalent to an allied Division. The French Army under Napoleon used corps-sized formations as the first formal combined-arms groupings of divisions with reasonably stable manning, Napoleon first used the Corps dArmée in 1805. The use of the Corps dArmée was an innovation that provided Napoleon with a significant battlefield advantage in the early phases of the Napoleonic Wars. The Corps was designed to be an independent military group containing cavalry, artillery and infantry and this allowed Napoleon to mass the bulk of his forces to effect a penetration into a weak section of enemy lines without risking his own communications or flank. This innovation stimulated other European powers to adopt similar military structures, the Corps has remained an echelon of French Army organization to the modern day. As fixed military formation already in peace-time it was used almost in all European armies after Battle of Ulm in 1805, in Prussia it was introduced by Order of His Majesty from November 5,1816, in order to strengthen the readiness to war

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Army group
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An army group is a military organization consisting of several field armies, which is self-sufficient for indefinite periods. It is usually responsible for a geographic area. An army group is the largest field organization handled by a single commander—usually a full general or field marshal—and it generally includes between 400,000 and 1,000,000 soldiers. In the Polish Armed Forces and former Soviet Red Army an army group was known as a Front, the equivalent of an army group in the Imperial Japanese Army was a general army. Army groups may be multi-national formations, for example, during World War II, the Southern Group of Armies comprised the U. S. Seventh Army and the French First Army, the 21st Army Group comprised the British Second Army, the Canadian First Army and the US Ninth Army. In U. S. Army usage, the number of a group is expressed in Arabic numerals. The French Army formed a number of groupe darmees during the First World War, the first of these was Army Group North, formed on a provision basis in October 1914. Army Group East and Army Group Centre both followed in 1915 while Army Group Reserve was established in 1917, a Franco-Belgian Army Group Flanders also existed briefly in 1918, under the command of Albert I of Belgium. The German Army formed its first two Heeresgruppen in 1915, to forces on the eastern front. A total of eight army groups would ultimately be raised, four for service on each front, originally the Imperial German army groups were not separate formations, but instead additional responsibilities granted to certain army commanders. Crown Prince Wilhelm for instance, was commander of the 5th Army and Army Group German Crown Prince from August 1915 to November 1916. All eight German army groups were named after their commanders, a Chinese army group was usually equivalent in numbers only to a field army in the terminology of other countries, as the regimental level was sometimes omitted. See Heeresgruppen and Armeegruppen The German Army was organized into army groups, some of these army groups were multinational, containing armies from several Axis countries. For example, Army Group Africa contained both German and Italian corps and these groupings were usually named after the commander of the unit in question, for example Armeegruppe Weichs, part of Army Group B during Operation Blau in 1942. The strength of the Kantōgun peaked at 700,000 personnel in 1941 and it faced and was destroyed by Soviet forces in 1945. Shina Hakengun, the China Expeditionary Army, was formed in Nanjing, in September 1939, at the end of World War II, it consisted of 620,000 personnel in 25 infantry and one armored divisions. Nanpo Gun was the Southern Army, also known as the Southern Expeditionary Army, after the surrender of Japan, the Imperial Japanese Army was dissolved, except for the Dai-Ichi So-Gun, which existed until 30 November 1945 as the 1st Demobilization Headquarters

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Front (military formation)
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A front is a military formation in some countries. Originating in the Russian Empire, it has been used by the Polish Army, the Red Army and Soviet Army and it is roughly equivalent to an army group in the military of most other countries. It varies in size but in general contains three to five armies and it should not be confused with the more general usage of military front, describing a geographic area in wartime. In August 1915, Northwestern Front was split into Northern Front, at the end of 1916 Romanian Front was established, which also included remnants of the Romanian army. In April 1917, Caucasus Front was established by the reorganization of the Caucasus Army, the Soviet fronts were first raised during the Russian Civil War. They were wartime only, in the peacetime the fronts were normally disbanded. Usually a single district formed a front at the start of the hostilities. Some military districts could not form a front, Fronts were also formed during the Polish-Soviet War of 1920. An interesting and important distinction between groups and fronts is that a Soviet front typically had its own army-sized tactical fixed-wing air organization. This air army was subordinated to the front commander. The entire front might report either to the Stavka or to a theatre of military operations, the degree of change in the structure and performance of individual fronts can only be understood when seen in the context of the strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II. Soviet fronts in the European Theatre during the Second World War from 1941 to 1945, Baltic Fronts 1st Baltic Front, 2nd Baltic Front, Formed from Bryansk Front on 10 October 1943. 3rd Baltic Front Bryansk Front - Created 18 December 1941, to take sector between the Western and Southwestern Fronts, reformed from Orel Front 28 March 1943. Renamed 1st Baltic Front Oct-Dec 1943, Karelian Front - formed from Northern Front, along with Leningrad Front, on 23 August 1941. Kursk Front Leningrad Front - formed from Northern Front, along with Karelian Front, composed of Western Fronts 61st Army, Central Fronts 3rd Army, and 15th Air Army. Redesignated Bryansk Front 28 March 1943, Army Group of Primorye Reserve Front - Front of Reserve Armies formed 14 July 1941 Southeastern Front - formed from armies on Stalingrad Fronts left wing,7 August 1942. Redesignated Stalingrad Front 28 September 1942, Southern Front - renamed 4th Ukrainian Front 20 October 1943. Southwestern Front - Formed initially on 22 June 1941, reestablished 22 October 1942 between Don and Voronezh Fronts

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Region
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In geography, regions are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics, human impact characteristics, and the interaction of humanity and the environment. Apart from the continental regions, there are also hydrospheric and atmospheric regions that cover the oceans. The land and water global regions are divided into subregions geographically bounded by large geological features that influence large-scale ecologies, such as plains and features. As a way of describing spatial areas, the concept of regions is important and widely used among the branches of geography. For example, ecoregion is a used in environmental geography, cultural region in cultural geography, bioregion in biogeography. The field of geography that studies regions themselves is called regional geography, where human geography is concerned, the regions and subregions are described by the discipline of ethnography. A region has its own nature that could not be moved, the first nature is its natural environment. The second nature is its physical elements complex that were built by people in the past, the third nature is its socio-cultural context that could not be replaced by new immigrants. Global regions distinguishable from space, and are clearly distinguished by the two basic terrestrial environments, land and water. However, they have generally recognised as such much earlier by terrestrial cartography because of their impact on human geography. They are divided into largest of land regions, known as continents, there are also significant regions that do not belong to either classification, such as archipelago regions that are littoral regions, or earthquake regions that are defined in geology. Continental regions are based on broad experiences in human history. As such they are conceptual constructs, usually lacking distinct boundaries, oceanic division into maritime regions are used in conjunction with the relationship to the central area of the continent, using directions of the compass. To a large extent, major continental regions are mental constructs created by considering an efficient way to large areas of the continents. For the most part, the images of the world are derived as much from academic studies and they are a matter of collective human knowledge of its own planet and are attempts to better understand their environments. Regional geography is a branch of geography that studies regions of all sizes across the Earth and it has a prevailing descriptive character. The main aim is to understand or define the uniqueness or character of a particular region, attention is paid also to regionalization, which covers the proper techniques of space delimitation into regions. Regional geography is considered as a certain approach to study in geographical sciences

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Theater (warfare)
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In warfare, a theater or theatre is an area or place in which important military events occur or are progressing. A theater can include the entirety of the air space, land, such a clearly defined idea as this is not capable of universal application, it is here used merely to indicate the line of distinction. Theater of operations is a sub-area within a theater of war, the boundary of a TO is defined by the commander who is orchestrating or providing support for specific combat operations within the TO. Theater of operations are divided into strategic directions or military regions depending whether its a war or peace time, the United States Armed Forces split into Unified Combatant Commands that are assigned to a particular theater of military operations. Strategic direction is a group of armies also known as task forces or battlegroups, also in the US Armed Forces the term of strategic is often associated with missile command dropping word missile out of use such as the United States Strategic Command. However it is an important strategic command that could be deployed in any theater of military operations. A strategic command or direction in general essence would combine a number of military formations or operational command. In modern military, a command is better known as a combat command that may be a combination of army groups. In a peacetime due to loss of a strategic direction fronts were transformed into military regions responsible for a section of operations. The Russian term is театр военных действий, teatr voennykh deistvii, abbreviated ТВД, as the armies advanced, both these zones and the areas into which they were divided would shift forward to new geographic areas of control

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the armed forces of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Communist …

Troops of the PLA entering Beijing at some unknown period of time in 1949 during the Chinese Civil War (between 1945 and 1949)

Chinese PLA troops gathered on a T-34/85 or a Type 58 medium tank leaving North Korea in 1958, 5 years after the Korean War ended with an armistice (a ceasefire) in 1953. The banner in the background of the picture bears a slogan (in Chinese) which declares "The Friendship And Unity Of The Korean And Chinese Peoples Of Both Countries Are Always Steadfast And Strong!"

Vintage Chinese propaganda poster, showing the PLA. The caption reads, "The People's Army is invincible". The pilot (on top) holds a flagstaff and a copy of Selected Works of Chairman Mao Zedong.

French postcard depicting the arrival of 15th Sikh Regiment in France during World War I. The postcard reads, "Gentlemen of India marching to chasten the German hooligans."

A Sikh soldier of the 4th Division (the Red Eagles) of the Indian Army, attached to the British Fifth Army in Italy. Holding a captured swastika after the surrender of German forces in Italy, May 1945. Behind him, a fascist inscriptions says "VIVA IL DUCE", "Long live the Duce" (i.e. Mussolini).

A fireteam or fire team is a small military sub-subunit of infantry designed to optimize "bounding overwatch" and "fire …

US Marines on patrol in Afghanistan, 2009.

An example of fire and maneuver in actual combat. Here, during the Battle of Okinawa, a US Marine on the left provides covering fire for the Marine on the right to break cover and move to a different position.